Victoria’s upper house voting system lets parties ignore your preferences. But there’s a simple fix

When you place a ‘1’ beside a party’s name above the line on Victoria’s upper house ballot paper, your vote flows according to the preference order decreed by that party. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Victoria’s upper house electoral system has a fatal flaw.

It funnels voters’ preferences towards parties they never would support and has been exploited to produce unfair and undemocratic outcomes.